Mustasch

MUSTASCH

Veröffentlicht am: 08.01.2010

Actually, the album title says it all: MUSTASCH. Simple, straight forward and without compromise, according to singer and band-leader Ralf Gyllenhammar’s vision. It’s an impressive CV the band has achieved: five albums, a huge hit with ”Double Nature”, sold-out tours in Scandinavia, opening- and headline tours with MOTÖRHEAD, GLUECIFER and cult band ROSE TATTOO in Europe, three Swedish Grammy Nominations and a Grammy Award for ”Metal of the Year” in 2008. After all this, the band reached a turning point. Full speed ahead focusing on the band or nothing at all. No half-hearted solutions, no compromises. All or nothing. "That’s the way I work as a person", Ralf explains. "Drunk or sober, angry or happy, all or nothing. There are no in-betweens in my world." The result of bringing matters to a head was seeing two original members – guitarist Hannes Hansson and drummer Mats Hansson – choose to leave MUSTASCH, despite the success. Following a run of temporary substitutes the band landed in a line-up where Ralf was joined by fellow founding member Mats Johansson on bass as well as new guitarist David Johannesson and drummer Danne McKenzie. MUSTASCH Mk II entered the Bohus Sound Studios to record with producer Tobias Lindell (production credits include Europe, A-Teens etc). The resulting album focuses on an equal strength in the individual songs. Where earlier works have had to factor in the opinions of different members – or sometimes complete lack of will to play certain songs, the end-result was patchy as a direct consequence. "The previous records have had three or four really good songs, the rest became filler material to meet everyones wishes. This time we felt like an even album was the step to take – and that meant it was my route we had to take. Today we have established that I am the boss of the band, and everyone is happy in their role here", says vocalist Ralf. The choice of Tobias Lindell came after the band visited the studio with previous producer Roberto Laghi. Tobias’ head-strong approach to experimenting and working in a non-conventional way was decisive in the band`s choice of people to work with in the studio. The song-writing for ”Mustasch” has been unusually painless, for which Ralf credits the new members and the new band order. Today he’s free to write as he finds best, follow his instinct and above all: focus on the best songs – not the songs the other members want to play.
All or nothing.
Nothing else will do.
” Mustasch” is the evidence of that.